The Rich Geek

My girlfriend Jen and I went to see the Dark Knight yesterday (Friday the 18th) and right off the bat let me say it was really awesome. At the same time let me say any younger batman fans out there may want to wait a few years before viewing it. While extremely well done the movie was quite dark and (in my opinion) highly inappropriate for younger children.

I know everyone wants to know how was the Joker? Well Heath Ledger did an amazing job. His portrayal blew me away, and thats saying something given the joker is one of my favorite villains of all time. Ledger has created what I consider THE iconic version of the joker. Ledgers joker hearkens back to the twisted mass murdering psychopath the joker was when he first appeared in Batman #1 way back in the 1940’s (thats old school comic love baby). At the same time he manages to combine bits (the best bits) of the joker as he evolved through the years and create something new. No maybe new isn’t the right word. Ledger has managed to portray a pure realistic portrayal of the jokers core essence. In a way with the intensity and depth of his performance I would say Ledger didn’t play the joker, he BECAME the joker. Everyone always of course will compare Ledgers joker with Jack Nicholson’s portrayal. If I were to do that I would say I love them both but Jack was much more the over the top and flamboyant joker of the comics. I also would say when you watch Jack play the joker you can’t help but see Jack playing the Joker. When you watch Heath Ledger play the joker, you see the joker.

Now as much as I loved the joker and Heath deserves all the props I can give there was more to the movie. Harvey Dent was brilliantly played by Aaron Eckhart and of course Christian Bale again completely embodied Batman. Bale gave true emotion and depth to his role as Bruce/Batman and brought across the conflicted nature of his life in a way that no one else has managed to do. I have to say I feel really bad for Bale in a way. If Heath Ledger hadn’t died he and Heath would have probably been promoting the movie together and shared the spotlight even with ledgers brilliant performance. But with his death it leaves Bale somewhat forgotten by both the media and the public in general.

Now before I go any further I want to say I’m going to put the rest of my review under the cut so I don’t’ spoil anything for those of you who haven’t seen the movie.

WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

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WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

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WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

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WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Well where to begin theres so much. I’ll forgo the entire plot rehash for the sake of my sanity as there was so much, I fear I’ll leave something out. Somehow The Dark Knight makes me think of the old time serials they used to show at the movies long ago. I say this because TDK picks up right where Batman Begins leaves off. It doesn’t rehash batman’s origins, in fact it doesn’t rehash or explain anything that happened in the last movie at all. It outright assumes you saw it and just jumps right into whats happening now which I think is a good thing. The old movies did far too much rehashing (and in some cases reworking for the new plot) for my taste.

Before I talk more about the joker I want to talk about the rest of the movie. I especially want to talk about Harvey Dent and by extension Two Face. Aaron Eckhart really seemed to get Harvey dent and gave a masterful performance. Gotham’s White Knight came across every bit the idealistic crusader against the night that he should be. Eckhart’s performance as Dent made the characters inevitable fall into shadow and madness all the more powerful. Before I get any hate mail saying “But Jim we true fans can’t stand for changing how his face got burned so you can go to hell!” let me say this. Chill for a minute. I get where you’re coming from. Staying close to the source material is important. But theres a difference between being accurate to a character and being chained to one. He was still burned, but I feel the way they chose to do it here makes more sense from a character development standpoint. The extreme trauma of the horrific injury and the trauma of listening to the woman he loves dying as well as everything he worked for getting destroyed all in the same instant made him crack. This seems a lot more powerful and more likely to me than he was burned by acid and that by itself made him go mad. Thats just me though feel free to disagree. Character wise Two Face was spot on in my opinion. Theres been several interpretations but him using it to “make the world fair” seems a good interpretation to me. It still made him tied to the coin like it was a crutch making his decisions for him and it tied well into his particular madness. Trying to make sense out of an unfair and insane world. Perverting his old beliefs into twisted forms. Where he used to believe that we make out own luck and choose out own destiny now he flips a real coin and lets fate decide. While before he believed in justice no matter the cost to himself, now he believes in justice but at a price for others. Also the makeup (and probably CGI) for his scarred half was amazingly realistic. It was just horrific and gross and just words can’t do it justice, you have to see it for yourself.

As I said earlier Christian Bale did an excellent job once again portraying Batman & Bruce Wayne. I’ve always viewed the Batman/Bruce duality as being actually false. The true personality is actually Batman and he only pretends to be the spoiled slightly cowardly rich boy to throw people off. I think in some ways he wishes he could leave batman behind and become Brice Wayne (possibly a less entitled and spoiled version thereof) so he can have a normal life. But he knows he can never have that dream. As long as there are criminals the police can’t deal with, Gotham needs it’s Dark Knight. These new movies portray that very well and Bale does an excellent job showing the depth of Batman’s character. The deeply conflicted and somewhat tormented man that he truly is. Not just a brooding and traumatized boy who grew up to become a vigilante to avenge his parents. But a man of deep moral character who walks the edge of the darkness in order to do the right thing. A man haunted by the choices he must make, but makes them anyway because he knows that only he can make the hard choices. In this movie we saw Bruce agonizing over whether to reveal his secret identity or remain batman knowing that the joker would kill many more innocents before he was stopped. Powerful stuff. I found myself wondering what I would do in that situation. What would you chose?

Back to the Joker now. Theres so much to say about our dear Mr. J. Heath ledger Truly created something incredible. Dark, twisted, sick, and yet not crazy. No the Joker was never really crazy not like you think of the word crazy anyway. He’s crazy like a serial killer, insane the way Hannibal Lecter is insane. Ledgers Joker is not a raving lunatic who dresses like a dandy, but a malevolent genius who truly revels in chaos and death. He is the kind of man who would laugh at a child’s funeral. I know many were concerned about the look his joker has but the scars and the makeup seem to fit the joker well in my view. And are very much in character with his original intent as a homicidal maniac who plays up the image of a clown because it suits his purpose. The joker shows no fear, no remorse, kills on a whim and yet in some strange way everything he does is done with a purpose even if only he can see it. I actually love the fact that they don’t give him a back story in this movie. He shows up and does his thing and even “explains” his scars. Though the explanation changes with every retelling as if he were making it up on the spot. I actually like this quite a lot and it reminds me of what the joker said about his past in The Killing Joke: “Sometimes I remember it one way, sometimes another… if I’m going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice!”

I feel that this joker portrays the best and most essential part of the joker. All the dark and twisted psychosis and still retaining that spark of sick, almost humorless humor. My favorite example of this in the movie is the truck that used to say laughter on the side and the joker used red spray paint (reminiscent of blood) to change it to slaughter. Funny isn’t it how laughter and slaughter are such similar words. I’m sure the joker would laugh. The already famous lines “why so serious” and “lets put a smile on that face!”. Which were both used when he was about to cut someones face to resemble his own, are also classic Joker moments. Both very dark and yet with an undercurrent of his “humor” (to him at least) coming through.

Overall I have to say the movie was excellent and truly an amazing experience. It will I think be remembered along with Batman Begins as one of the great “superhero” movies of all time. However there was a lot going on in this movie and I think it could have used a little more explanation in some areas. The whole Scarecrow scene at the beginning for instance. Why would batman let him go? And why is he out of Arkham to begin with? Also obviously the joker survives in the end but what exactly happened to him. It literally leaves him hanging and leaves us hanging wondering what happened. It may be because they couldn’t use some footage because of Ledgers death but even if thats the case they still could have given some kind of explanation. To be fair it was a VERY long movie as it was at just over 2 and a half hours, so I’m sure a lot had to be trimmed or outright cut from the movie. Maybe we’ll see an extended cut on DVD or at least deleted scenes on the DVD so we can see if they intended to explain these more. I know those few things seem a little nitpicky but thats because it was a great movie and didn’t have any major flaws so YAY!!!! We should all rejoice at that.

On a final note I also want to say I’m so glad they eliminated Katie Holmes and replaced her with Maggie Gyllenhaal. I really loved batman Begins but Katie Holmes is just a terrible actress. Maggie Gyllenhaal brought sense of class to the character of Rachel that Katie never could. Her Portrayal of the character with it’s beauty, grace, and inner strength was miles away of Katie Holmes, and made the movie that much more sweet for me.

So I give The Dark Knight a Solid A rating, 5 stars baby!!! Go see it if you haven’t and if you have then go see it again… this time in costume as you’re favorite Batman Character. If you already did that then Kudos to you my little geeky darlings. If you have pictures of you in costume please feel free to share we’d all love to see! Ta Ta for now!

~The Amazing Mr. J